Bracket Briefing: Why the better team doesn't win in the Dance

Mar. 29, 2013
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Syracuse forward C.J. Fair (5) shoots over Indiana forward Cody Zeller (40) during the first half of an East Regional semifinal in the NCAA college basketball tournament on Thursday. / Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP

by Scott Gleeson, USA TODAY Sports

by Scott Gleeson, USA TODAY Sports

Welcome to another session of Bracket Briefing, our attempt to provide you with essential information on the Big Dance - highlighting the Florida Gulf Coasts of basketball world, and forecasting the Ali Farokhmanesh moments before they happen.

At the water cooler: With 12 teams left in the field, two No. 1 teams - Gonzaga and Indiana - bowed out of the Big Dance. The top overall seed, Louisville, remains in the field along with fellow No. 1 seed Kansas. Both teams have been circled on brackets for obvious reasons. They're smart choices. No, they're not bold or daring picks by any stretch of the imagination, but who's betting against Louisville at this point? But if there's one thing Thursday's games reminded us, it's that the better team does not always come out on top. Case in point:

- The team with more talent (Arizona) doesn't always beat the team that's more battle-tested and defensively sound (Ohio State).

- Likewise, the team that has more talent (Miami) can be hampered by last-minute injuries and ice-cold shooting and lose to a less-talented team with a chip on its shoulder (Marquette) coming off two near-upset wins in the second and third rounds.

- The team that has two of the best players in the country (Indiana) can be shaken and play immensely below its capability when a predictable yet undecipherable 2-3 zone is thrown at them by a well-coached team peaking at the right time (Syracuse).

-The team that caught lightning in a bottle and beat undoubtedly better teams in the previous two rounds (La Salle) runs out of gas against a team that exploits all of its weaknesses (Wichita State) and makes its strengths (guard play) irrelevant.

Now, let's not take anything away from Thursday's winners (Marquette, Ohio State, Syracuse and Wichita State). They played better on this particular night. That's the beauty of the NCAAs - There's no seven-game series to allow a Big East or Big Ten team to win every year. There's no BCS system determining teams' fate. It's one game, and if you play like Georgetown or San Diego State, you lose to a No. 15 seed with a coach who has a model wife. Only in March.

Another No. 1 bites the dust: The Hoosiers failed to reach the Elite Eight for a second consecutive season after entering the season as the favorite to win the title and earning a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. The 61-50 final margin wasn't indicative of the degree to which Indiana struggled en route to season worsts in scoring and field goal percentage. It also tied season worsts for turnovers, opponents' steals and blocked shots. Read the game story here.

Star of the night: Before Ohio State's Thursday night clash with Arizona, LaQuinton Ross was a role player on the Buckeyes roster. Afterward, he was the hero. Or Kobe Bryant, according to his locker. The Buckeyes dressed in the Los Angeles Lakers' locker room Thursday night, and somehow it was sophomore sub Ross who drew the Black Mamba's locker.

Ross channeled his inner-Kobe Bean Bryant by drilling a clutch three-pointer with two seconds left to seal a 73-70 victory for OSU after Arizona's Mark Lyons had knotted the game at 70-all on the previous possession. Read the game story here.

Quote to note: "We're used to people not giving us credit, saying we were no good. If you were to look at our roster, no one would expect us to be a Elite Eight team. Our guys don't get into that much, but it's good to know if you step on to the court, if you don't give us respect, we're going to earn it. We work harder than, I feel, anybody in the country. We don't have the name of North Carolina, Syracuse or Georgetown, but we are still here, we show up every single day, and no matter how anybody feels about. ... Everybody doubting us is normal to us, and I feel like they should keep doing it, because obviously it's helping us, we don't want to be the - we want to keep being the hunters, we don't want to be the hunted. We want to go after people." - Marquette guard Vander Blue. Read the game story here.

California Love: Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall asked his players before a matchup with No. 13 La Salle if they were satisfied with the Sweet 16. "It was an overwhelming no," Marshall said. The Shockers are past shocking, having asserted themselves as a contender after ousting No. 1 Gonzaga last weekend and now putting an end to No. 13 seed La Salle's Cinderella run with a 72-58 dispatching. Read the game story here.

"I was willing to live with the situation I put myself in," said Hall after guiding Wichita State to a 72-58 victory over La Salle in the Sweet 16 at the Staples Center. "If anything happened, like if I possibly died or something on the court, I told her I would've died happy because I would have died doing something that I loved to do."

Not-so-super speech: The Indiana Hoosiers received a pep talk from coach Tom Crean's brother-in-law, Ravens coach John Harbaugh, before Thursday's game against Indiana. Whatever the Super Bowl-winning coach conveyed to the team, it seemed the message was lost, as Syracuse rolled over Indiana 61-50 to advance to the Elite Eight.

Poor choice of words: NCAA men's basketball analyst Doug Gottlieb certainly made quite a first impression as he joined co-hosts Greg Gumbel, Kenny Smith, Greg Anthony and Charles Barkley in studio for the CBS pregame show Thursday night. Introduced by Gumbel, Gottlieb made an awkward diversity joke that left all four of his African-American co-hosts shaking their heads.

"Cream rising to the crop. I don't know why you guys asked me, I'm just here to bring diversity to the set here. Give the kind of white man's perspective on things from the point guard position."

- No. 3 Florida vs. No. 15 Florida Gulf Coast, 9:57 p.m., TBS: Read this story and this story to gear up for the game.

- No. 3 Michigan State vs. No. 2 Duke, 9:45 p.m., CBS: Read this story to gear up for the game. Read this story by Sports on Earth to gear up for the game.

On deck: Saturday's Elite Eight game slate. All times Eastern.

- No. 4 Syracuse vs. No. 3 Marquette, 4:30 p.m, CBS: It'll be a Big East clash between two foes with Final Four implications.

- No. 9 Wichita State vs. No. 2 Ohio State, 7:05 p.m., CBS: Two defensive juggernauts. One team's from an underrated mid-major conference. One team's from unarguably the toughest league in the country.